The present invention relates generally to a device for protecting the surface of a shoe tongue. More particularly, the device is capable of protecting the shoe tongue while displaying artistic designs, logos, and trademarks.
In today's market, shoes have become items of fashion and style. Thus, it is desirable to protect the surfaces on shoes from dirt and other contaminants. Unfortunately, prior art shoe tongue protection devices are often unnecessarily inflexible in their ability to adjust to different types of shoes and difficult to secure to the shoe tongue.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,497 discloses a shoe tongue cover for a shoe tongue. The shoe tongue cover has a body which defines a recess for receiving the shoe tongue. At the bottom of the body, a strip of hook and loop fasteners are attached to an exterior surface. Also at the bottom of the body is a pair of folding ends with a pair of complementary hook and loop fasteners. When the shoe tongue is inserted into the body, the ends are wrapped around the strip of hook and loop fasteners on the external surface of the body. As can be seen, the disclosed shoe tongue cover in this patent cannot be adjusted to different shoe sizes. Furthermore, once the shoe tongue is inserted into the body, the bottom of the cover is within the shoe itself. This makes it difficult to wrap the folding ends onto the strip at the bottom of the body.